SURVEILLANCE'Significant' Risks as Facial Recognition in Russia's Subways Goes Regional
In a move that human rights advocates warn carries potential risks for civil rights, Russia has begun expanding its facial-recognition payment system for subways to six cities outside of Moscow.
In a move that human rights advocates warn carries potential risks for civil rights, Russia has begun expanding its facial-recognition payment system for subways to six cities outside of Moscow.
Kazan, seat of the Volga River region of Tatarstan, and one subway station in Nizhny Novgorod, another major Volga city, started using the system, called Face Pay, in August, according to Russian media and government reports.
The head of the Biometric Technologies Center (TsBT), the state-run company overseeing the biometric-payments project, claims that all of Russia’s subway systems will use the technology by 2025.
“For each participant, the process will be absolutely seamless,” Tatar-Inform.ru quoted TsBT General Director Vladislav Povolotsky as saying for Face Pay’s Kazan launch. Riders “can move between the cities of our big country using this service.”
Citing TsBT documents, the business daily Kommersant reported in January that Yekaterinburg and Samara would also install Face Pay in 2024, St. Petersburg and Novosibirsk are to roll out the system by the end of 2025.
Russian officials claim Face Pay offers unrivalled security and convenience since it relies only on a passenger’s face to work. But for critics, that’s just the problem.
In Moscow, which launched Russia’s first Face Pay system in 2021, CCTV street cameras have been used to detain both alleged participants in anti-government protests and the journalists covering the events.
Citing such detentions and arrests, attorney Andrei Fedorkov, who works with the banned Russian human rights organization Memorial on support for political prisoners, fears that practice could extend to Russia’s biometric subway-payment system. He called the risks “significant.”
“This system is already active and functioning. It’s not as massive and all-encompassing as in China, but the trend is totally obvious,” Fedorkov said. “Therefore, yes, this system will become yet another powerful instrument in today’s Russia for the surveillance and control of citizens.”
‘Increased Risks for Human Rights’
Kazan subway users told local news outlet Vechernyaya Kazan that “compliments” appear on screen when the Face Pay device scans their faces and “takes note of (their) styling, taste in clothing, smile, and other features.”
As of September 15, they will receive a 15-ruble ($0.16) “cashback” for each Face Pay ride, according to Kazan subway officials.
How many passengers in Kazan and Nizhny Novgorod have opted to use Face Pay is not clear.
Aside from Russia, China, Kazakhstan, and Japan also use facial recognition for subway payments.
